Winter in Calumet Park, Chicago — Joann Podkul Murphy, Photographer
CALUMET REGION SITES
This Site:
This site has its origins in our professional lives as sociologists and educators. From military, corporate, and institutional experiences over our combined professional lives and, of course, as citizens experiencing and observing the world around us. we realized that major Chicago media had long been in the habit of taking a "body-count" approach to describing a community that is, like most communities, filled with great potential, and subjected to stresses of economy and location that create occasional tragic incidents against a much broader background than those media suggest.
The most charitable explanation is that those media are simply following the time-honored maxim, "If it bleeds, it leads," and there is no sinister plot behind the fact that little of a positive nature in our community gets the exposure that similar events, North of 67th Street, tend to get.
Thus, we resolved to build a website that would highlight those positive aspects of the community which, to us, includes not only Southeast Chicago, but also Northwest Indiana, both of them being children of the ecologically rich Calumet Region.
This site has its origins in our professional lives as sociologists and educators. From military, corporate, and institutional experiences over our combined professional lives and, of course, as citizens experiencing and observing the world around us. we realized that major Chicago media had long been in the habit of taking a "body-count" approach to describing a community that is, like most communities, filled with great potential, and subjected to stresses of economy and location that create occasional tragic incidents against a much broader background than those media suggest.
The most charitable explanation is that those media are simply following the time-honored maxim, "If it bleeds, it leads," and there is no sinister plot behind the fact that little of a positive nature in our community gets the exposure that similar events, North of 67th Street, tend to get.
Thus, we resolved to build a website that would highlight those positive aspects of the community which, to us, includes not only Southeast Chicago, but also Northwest Indiana, both of them being children of the ecologically rich Calumet Region.
On this first day of working with Weebly (May 21, 2018), we fear that the appearance of our websites is going to be unfamiliar to all of us, for a while.
This website evolved from earlier websites that fell before the relentless march of technology, in which our initial effort struggled to stay alive and adapt to the rapid evolution of online communication technology, having begun early in this century, based on an Indian software program that faded into oblivion after a year or two.
Our efforts were renewed in an Apple-based iWeb site that also died when Apple abandoned such software, but was quickly reborn in a Karelia/Sandvox package recommended by Apple (and rightly so, while its Technical Support center lived), only to die, again, when support ceased to be provided to us.
So, here we are again, this time with Weebly, which seems likely to be a serious participant in website work for our foreseeable future. But, as veteran followers of our websites will realize, transitions force us to adapt to the capabilities of the software available to us, and our skill at incorporating that software in the process of transmitting our messages to the community.
On the other hand, at this early moment of Weebly-ness, that may not be such a bad thing, as it seems likely that it will turn out to be more attractive than its predecessor. Now, if we can successfully use it, at least as well as we did one software generation ago, to tell your stories -- events, announcements, articles, links, etc. -- then, we -- and we hope, you -- will be pleased.
This website evolved from earlier websites that fell before the relentless march of technology, in which our initial effort struggled to stay alive and adapt to the rapid evolution of online communication technology, having begun early in this century, based on an Indian software program that faded into oblivion after a year or two.
Our efforts were renewed in an Apple-based iWeb site that also died when Apple abandoned such software, but was quickly reborn in a Karelia/Sandvox package recommended by Apple (and rightly so, while its Technical Support center lived), only to die, again, when support ceased to be provided to us.
So, here we are again, this time with Weebly, which seems likely to be a serious participant in website work for our foreseeable future. But, as veteran followers of our websites will realize, transitions force us to adapt to the capabilities of the software available to us, and our skill at incorporating that software in the process of transmitting our messages to the community.
On the other hand, at this early moment of Weebly-ness, that may not be such a bad thing, as it seems likely that it will turn out to be more attractive than its predecessor. Now, if we can successfully use it, at least as well as we did one software generation ago, to tell your stories -- events, announcements, articles, links, etc. -- then, we -- and we hope, you -- will be pleased.
Joann Podkul Murphy
Co-Editor Joann Podkul Murphy: With graduate degrees in Sociology, and in Administration & Supervision, Illinois Certificates in History, and in Administration, specialized advanced training both domestically and abroad, Joann Podkul Murphy has had decades of teaching experience, both in the high school classroom and also in various programs sponsored by both the Chicago Public School System and the Chicago Teachers Union, in which she served as teacher/mentor to other professionals for such programs as the Chicago Teachers Union Leadership Training Program on Reform Issues; the CTU-CPS School Improvement Plan for Professional Personnel Advisory Committee; Budgeting, Principal Selection and more. She served as the Bowen High school Staff Development/Assessment Coordinator, Service Learning Coordinator, Chair of the Social Studies Department, collaborated with the Chicago State University Department of Curriculum and Development, implemented the Haberman Urban Teacher Interview Process, and served as a Teachers for Chicago Board Member. She coordinated the Teacher Academy, the first school-within-a-school on the Bowen High School Campus, and subsequently founded and administered the Bowen Environmental Studies Team (B.E.S.T.) Small School until her retirement from C.P.S. As editor, researcher, and writer, she compiled a Multicultural Bibliography for the Illinois State Board of Education Office of Equal Opportunity, authored the "Consensus Unit" for the Chicago Teachers Union Leadership Training Manual, contributed to the book, Teaching in the Desegregated Classroom, and to the book, Creative Encounters in the Classroom, among other things. Following "retirement," she increased her volunteer activity with community environmental organizations and, as a result, was asked to chair the nascent Calumet Region environmental umbrella organization, the Calumet Stewardship Initiative, which function she fulfilled for nearly five years. She served on the board of the South Chicago Chamber of Commerce, working on many community related projects, volunteers at the Southeast Chicago Historical Museum, and is an active member of the Southeast Chicago Coalition of Artists. Recently, she has become an increasingly active videographer of community events, and designer/publisher of several community tours (Blues Brothers Sites; Southeast Chicago Green sites; South Chicago Public Arts). |
Kevin P. Murphy
Editor, Webmaster Kevin P. Murphy: With a graduate degree in Sociology, and decades of teaching experience, Kevin Murphy has taught courses in sociology and education at the undergraduate and graduate level, and has served as an organizational development consultant for client corporations and institutions, both domestically and abroad. He has designed and taught courses and workshops in conference leadership, group dynamics, interviewing/counseling for managers. and problem solving. While in the military, and also in industry, he investigated various incidents involving government security violations, facility break-ins, and thefts, among other things. He has designed and implemented operator-training simulations for computer-based service-delivering networks, video-, and hands-on simulations for military-, and NASA-electronics workers, and learning simulations for teachers working in public and parochial school systems. A past president of the Southeast Chicago Historical Society, he was also the first Secretary/Webmaster of the Calumet Stewardship Initiative, and is an active member of the Southeast Chicago Coalition of Artists. He has spent his more recent "career" as a freelance writer, during which time he has served as a theatre correspondent, novelist, and playwright. He has written two Calumet Region-centered mystery novels, Degrees of Murder, and Out of Order, each of which has received highly favorable reviews after publication; the play, Unfriendly Fire; and the award-winning screenplay, Something Bright and Alien, which has recently been published as a science-fiction e-novel; the dinner-theatre-murder-mystery plays, Hot Time at the Speakeasy (2014), and Murder at the Wartime Book Club Cafe (2016); and contributed to the book, Teaching in the Desegregated Classroom. As a webmaster, he has created and managed several websites, including http://spotlightingsoutheastchicagoandnorthwestindiana.site, and https://www.calumetregionsites.com, which he produces and manages in collaboration with his wife, Joann Podkul Murphy. As videographer/editor he has recorded and edited several hndred videos, also in collaboration with his wife, Joann, and posted on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/user/calumetstewardship/featured. |
Joann and Kevin bring to this site their belief in the importance of preserving a community's history for the purposes of understanding how the present has been shaped, honoring those who did that shaping, and formulating plans for defining the future of the community.